From the perspective of someone looking out the window, it was like watching the world turn around you. To those outside the car it was obviously the other way around, but sitting in the passenger seat and staring idly out the window gave the impression of the world passing you by. You were a single unmoving point in a world of motion.

"...so I told him that he could have my lunch. Turns out I was a sucker though, because I caught him chowing down on some restaurant tacos an hour later. Last time I trust that guy around food."

"..."

"Hey, Irvin? ...You still awake?" Terrence whispers the last part, just to be safe.

"...Huh? O-Oh, yeah…" Irvin mutters. "G-Good story…"

An awkward silence followed the two men in the vehicle. The atmosphere between them was thick enough to cut with a knife. The source of the awkwardness was obvious to both of them, but neither wanted to bring it up.

Terrence settled for indirectly broaching the topic. "So… no tux?" He asks, glancing at the other man before fixing his eyes back on the road ahead.

"...My old one didn't fit. C-Couldn't afford a rental." Irvin almost mumbles back, still staring out his window.

"I wish you'd said so sooner. You know I would have been willing to spot you for one, right?"

Irvin stayed silent, focusing on the passing scenery. Terrence lets out a sigh, but drops the topic for the time being.

When they eventually arrive and park in front of a church, Irvin is slow to exit. His whole demeanor gives off the impression that he might shatter like glass at any moment.

Before they can head up the stairs to the doorway, Terrence grabs him by the hand and pulls him aside.

"Hey… I'm really sorry this happened." He awkwardly shuffles his feet, thinking of a good way to phrase his concerns. "I just... wanted to be sure that you're gonna be okay in there. I mean, it's fine if you aren't, but like… If this is too much, you don't have to force yourself to do this."

Irvin shudders at the reminder of why they were here. "N-No, I… I-I have to be there, right? They'll p-probably want me to say something about her."

"Yeah but… it's totally normal if you aren't ready to handle anything like that. That's all I'm saying."

"It's fine… S-She deserves a proper f-funeral, it's f-fine."

Terrence gives his friend a sad look, and walks inside with him. A woman by the doors took their names, and showed the pair inside.

There's a line for the casket at the other end of the room, but Irvin decidedly doesn't get near it. He glides past it and takes a seat on the other end of the room, as far away from the body as he can get.

He could hear everyone talking around him. They all were saying the same things. How unfortunate it all was, how great of a person she was, and how unfortunate that it had to be her instead of someone else. That last part might have just been in his head, but he knew everyone was thinking it. How could anyone who knew her think differently?

His eyes peek toward the older couple standing near the opened casket. When the woman catches his gaze, he quickly looks back down at the ground.

After the line clears up and everyone takes a seat, the proceedings continue with a speaker coming to the front. A pastor takes the podium, and addresses the crowd.

"I would like to thank each and every one of you for coming today. For some of you it was quite a distance, but please know that the family is thankful for your presence here on this day. May the Good Lord bless us all on this day…"

"Elizabeth Kemp was a kindly soul, and one we all care for deeply. May she rest soundly in the other world, and may her spirit be with all of us as we go about our lives."

As the pastor goes on, giving a short sermon about the deceased, Irvin's eyes stay focused on the casket. From where he sat, he couldn't see the body. Just knowing it was there was enough to throw his whole mind into disarray. His hands felt clammy as a cold sweat ran down his back. It was for the best that he hadn't eaten, because it felt like he was about to throw up.

She was in there… No, her body was in there.

She was gone.

Terrence suddenly shakes Irvin's shoulder. "Hey, you holding up?"

"...H-H-Huh?" Irvin blinks, breaking out of his trance. The pastor was still going, so he hadn't missed too much.

"...Look, his sermon's almost up. You can say your piece afterwards, and then I really think you should step outside for a bit, okay?"

"Yeah… yeah... " Irvin nods idly, staring forward and trying to pay attention like the rest of the congregation. The effort is futile, as Irvin can't even begin to process what was being said with everything on his mind.

Eventually, there's a pause. A moment of silence Irvin thinks, only to realize when someone else approaches the podium that they'd shifted to letting others speak about the deceased.

"My daughter, Eliza, made me the luckiest mother in the world. When you have a kid, you always have these expectations and hopes that your kid will be better than everyone else's. Eliza went above and beyond them all. No matter what life threw at her, she never stopped trying…" An older woman goes on. Irvin tunes most of the words out, not ready to hear it. They echo as dull beats within his head.

The moment she steps down, Irvin finally stands up. He couldn't wait any longer, he had to speak.

The choice to sit in the back meant that he had to walk the entire aisle to make it to the stand however, creating a long pause as he slowly meandered his under-dressed body to the room's front. Even if a suit wasn't an option for him, Irvin suddenly felt self-conscious about showing up in his usual overalls and tee. That pang of shame was just one more knot in his gut. Not that he needed any more...

As he rose above the audience, taking the steps onto the stage, his position finally gave him sight into the coffin he'd ignored for so long. The body inside was finally visible to him, despite how much he'd tried to avoid it.

His breathing becomes labored, as he has to hold himself together for her sake. He just had to say a few words, and that was it. They wouldn't ask him to do anything else, nobody expected any more from him.

When he finally looked out over the crowd though, his mind stalled. The notes he had taken on what to say suddenly read like gibberish to him. He was panicking, trying to remember what he'd come up with. What were the words he wanted to use to share his thoughts?

Each second of silence felt like an eternity as Irvin looked over the crowd. He tried the best he could to read the notes he'd written, but to no avail.

"M-My sister w-was- is… um, she… Eliza, um… I d-d-d-don't know w-why…"

He felt like crying. It was all a waste if he couldn't get a word out. He would have been better off not coming.

One phrase kept running through his mind however. It was a thought that had followed him since the moment he heard about what happened, and one he'd done his best not to express. He knew it would be upsetting. But without the speech he prepared, he didn't have anything else to say.

He looked back at the body once more, and the words naturally just came out.

"I'm sorry that I'm still alive, when she isn't."

The pastor was quick to get him off the stage after that. Many of the guests started privately talking, whispering to whoever was closest. Irvin wasn't focused on them as he walked back. His gaze settled on his friend in the back of the room.

Terrence gave him a sad frown, which Irvin returned. He was disappointed in himself too.

Even after she died, he couldn't even handle saying anything at her funeral.

He really didn't deserve someone like her.

...

Irvin had silently excused himself and taken a seat on the staircase out front. He didn't have any more tears to shed. Instead, his sorrow manifested as a hollow feeling inside of him. Though that could also have been the fact that he hadn't eaten anything in a while.

He could still hear sounds from inside. Other people were giving proper remarks, far removed from the dribble he spat out. Eliza would have been happy to hear all of the nice things they'd said about her.

...Why was he even here?

Terrence was still inside, but the thought of going back with him didn't sit well with Irvin. After his friend had gone out of his way to drive over a hundred miles to get him here, all Irvin managed to do was ruin the service for everyone else by making it about him and his stupid insecurities. It would be a long drive back with that incident sitting between them.

...Without thinking, Irvin got up and started walking. It was ridiculous, his apartment was in another state, it wasn't like he'd be able to make it back on foot. Especially not without anything sitting in his stomach. And even if he happened to stumble across a bus stop, he didn't have nearly enough change to ride all the way back.

It was stupid to walk away. Deep down, Irvin knew it, but he wasn't even thinking about getting home. The desire to run away from everything overwhelmed his basic sense, and before he knew it he had broken out into a sprint.
The autumn fog hid the path ahead, trees only became visible seconds before he would crash into them. A chill overtook the forest he'd unconsciously dashed into, cutting into his exposed arms like knives. Ill-suited for the funeral, and ill-suited for the woods, Irvin really had picked the worst possible outfit hadn't he? Soon his own tears were worsening his vision as well.

Soon enough however, Irvin had stumbled into an area of the woods where the fog had cleared out. An empty lot, almost suspiciously lacking the trees and fog that coated the surrounding wood.

That alone was unusual, but it was the sound of something large approaching that broke him out of his stupor. A screech of metal on metal, a repetitious chugging of pistons, and a loud whistle all painted the picture of what to expect.

Even so, when a train suddenly blazed past him, he found himself at a loss. Had he really missed the tracks on the ground, or were they simply not there before?

As the train carried on, it suddenly slowed down to a halt. As if on cue, the car which stopped right in front of him had a door. It opened right in front of him, but the car inside was too dark to make anything out. It was suspicious, and Irvin should have treated it as such.

But it didn't matter anymore. After everything he'd been through, he was just tired. As long as it took him far away, he didn't care where it took him.

The moment his foot crossed the threshold through the doorway, these thoughts all left him. A light traveled from within the car right at him at a high speed, and the next thing he knew…

…

…

Below his body, Irvin felt something soft and cushiony. It was more comfortable than the couch in his apartment, so it felt unnatural.

That wasn't even mentioning how bright the light above him was. It had to be about noonish, because the sun was right above him. The moment he recognized that though, he knew something was wrong. He was outside? But, he was definitely lying on something more comfortable than a park bench or grass…

And wait… didn't he get on a train?

Finally, as if spurred on by the disturbing questions, Irvin mustered the energy to sit up and look around. The number of questions he had rose exponentially as soon as he did.

He was sitting in some sort of… pod. It had a hard white exterior, but plush grey padding on the inside. Directly in front of him though was a video screen, which flicked on seemingly in direct response to him rising.

After some static, the display changed to an image of a metal orb with tiny nubs for limbs. A black strip went vertically across it, and the two white dots on top of each other gave the impression of eyes. If it was a toy, Irvin thought it would sell pretty well.

A british voice came out of it as it raised a stump. "Welcome aboard new passenger! My name is one-" suddenly, it's voice changed to a more melancholic tone "-one."

...And then right back to cheerful brit. "I hope the ride wasn't bumpy! Some passengers have described horrible beasts attacking them and ripping them out of their pods before ever getting their introduction. So if that hasn't happened to you, consider yourself one of the lucky ones!"

"...H-Huh? What's-" Irvin starts.

"Now I'm sure you have a whole boatload of questions, but if you're asking them to the screen then you should know that I'm not actually there. This is just a video!" "I could be dead for all you know."

"Don't worry though, I've done this enough times before to know what you're most likely to ask. You're probably thinking: 'Where am I?', 'Why am I here?', 'Which way is the nearest bathroom?'."

Irvin hadn't been wondering that last one. Although now that he'd mentioned it…

"I wrote a musical number to answer all of those questions and more!" "But the critical world considered it uninspired and unnecessary, so I burned the script."

"So instead, I'm just going to tell you! This is a train where you sort out all of your problems! I'm almost entirely positive the biggest problem on your mind right now is that number on your hand. Unless you didn't notice it yet, in which case, it's the biggest problem on your miiiiiinnnnnnddddddd- now!"

Confused, Irvin looked down at his hands. His eyes went wide at the sight of his right, which glowed green from the palm. A number was written there in glowing text.

764

How did…? He rubs at it to try and wipe it off, but whatever ink they wrote it with doesn't smudge at all.

"Every passenger is assigned a number by the train based on their life, in order to grant each of you the most personalized experience we can offer." "Not that your number is guaranteed to be unique..."

Wait, train? So the train was real, not some weird hallucination? But then where was it now?

"If you want to get back home, then all you've got to do is get your number down to zero, and poof! Away you'll go! If you need help dropping digits, don't be afraid to try asking others for help. After all, your problems may seem rough, but our problems can be worked on as a team." "Unless your problems compliment each other perfectly to send you down a horrible spiral where you both continually enforce each others' worst selves, ensuring that you're trapped in here until one of you meets your end." "But don't worry, that has only ever happened twice."

...Irvin begins sweating, as fear starts creeping its way up his spine.

Instead of explaining more about what was going on, the tape breaks into legal jargon. "By watching this tape you agree to release the train of any liabilities..." It goes on, but Irvin tunes the rest of it out.

Finally, he takes his attention off the screen and tries to get an idea of where he was. The surrounding land was outdoors still, but none of the scenery looked the same as the forest he'd been in before. The lot he was in before was empty, but there were clear landmarks here. A barn, a cow pen, some wandering sheep, and a house up on a nearby hill. Plenty of places to explore.

...Irvin sighs, and lies back down. There was just so much wrong with all of this, he needed a minute to take it all in. "Y-You're having a rough day Irvin… Let's f-figure this out."

He stands up, and starts pacing around his pod. "If I w-want to go home, then I n-need to get this number down to z-zero somehow. And th-this number has s-something to do with my life or something. I don't have any other numbers to u-use as a frame of reference, so there's n-no way to know if 764 is a particularly h-high number or a low one..."

That robot thing, One-one, had mentioned asking others for help. That meant he probably wasn't alone here either. If this was a farm, then there were probably farmers he could talk to. They might know something more about it.

"That would be a good place to start, if I w-want to get this number down…" With that, Irvin knew exactly what he needed to do.

So he got back into his pod and lied back down.

"Why should I bother getting this d-down to zero? There's no p-point in going back home." He mutters to himself. "Eliza's already g-gone..."

It didn't really matter what Irvin did anymore. Nothing did.

"M-Might as well just lie here forever, until it's all over."

So… he went back to sleep.

...

...

...

"...ey, are you okay?"

"Mmmnnnnhhhuh?" Irvin slurs, his eyes flickering open.

He could have sworn he'd heard someone, but the only thing he saw was a small mouse with weirdly pink fur that had made its home on his chest. Instinctively, he tries to smack it off.

It escapes by leaping forward and grabbing him by the chin, it's tiny nails lightly grazing him.

"Hey! Is that any way to thank your savior?"

...Irvin's arm freezes in the air, as he realizes that the voice was coming from the mouse itself.

"...W-What?"

"Honestly, you probably didn't even realize you were in danger. You really shouldn't be sleeping in a place like this, it's dangerous." The rodent releases his chin and sits back down on Irvin's chest. She slides toward his gut as he quickly sits up.

"You're t-talking. That's… unusual." An understatement, but Irvin was too emotionally exhausted to give a greater reaction. He shakes his head. "D-Danger?"

"The cows, simpleton." The mouse points towards the nearby pen. It looked about the same as it did before. "The farmer took them out for a walk, and you nearly got trampled. Luckily, I was here to warn them that you were here."

A small part of him was upset that she spared him from dying in his sleep. It would have been a lot easier than sitting around waiting for it all to end. "R-Really?"

"Of course. They were all nice enough to go past you, see?" The mouse motioned towards a single hoofprint pressed into the grass right beside his pod. Irvin looked around, but didn't see any other prints aside from the one.

"...I-Isn't that a horse's hoofprint? Cow prints l-look kind of different."

"Perhaps the cow that left this print fancied wearing horseshoes." The mouse remarks, avoiding Irvin's eyes.

"A-Also, shouldn't there be m-more than one? Even if it w-was just one cow, there should b-be tracks leading here f-first, right?"

"...You should have seen how far the cow jumped. Straight from the pen to here, just a few feet off and you would have been the world's first stuttering pancake. You're welcome for that." She remarks quickly, waving off Irvin's concerns.

"...Even then, shouldn't there at least be four prints?" Irvin asks, disbelief clear in his voice.

The rodent finally turns back to Irvin with a frustrated expression. Moreso than a mouse likely should have been able to express. "Oh? And were you awake to see what all happened?"

"N-No."

"Then I would prefer if you stopped trying to cast doubt on my claims. Honestly, even after I stuck out my neck for you. How ungrateful can you be?"

Irvin was almost certain that he was getting scammed, but he relents anyways. "S-Sorry… Thank you for d-doing that, I guess."

The mouse claps her hands together. "That's more like it. You're very welcome. But since I did you a good turn, I'd appreciate it if you could help me out with something. You know, return the favor a bit since you're so grateful for my help."

Irvin rolls over in his pod. "No thanks."

"Huh?"

"Thank y-you for helping, b-but I'm t-too busy to help with whatever you want." He says, burying his face into his pillow.

He felt the creature move up to his shoulders. "Excuse me, but are you seriously trying to tell me that you're busy when you've been sleeping here for the past hour?"

"My current p-plan is just to lie down here forever until I die. You're k-kind of interrupting it."

"..."

There was silence for a minute after that. Then suddenly, the mouse bit his cheek, making him let out a yelp of pain.

"S-S-S-Stop that!" He shouted, sitting up quickly and looking for her. The small creature had fallen back down to his body, and was crawling her way down his overalls. "H-Hey! Not that way! I'll s-squash you if- Gah!" She bit him again while he was shouting.

After a few more bites and a couple scratches, Irvin had jumped to his feet and relented. "Alright! W-What do you want?"

That gets the aggressive rodent to cease her assault. She climbs up his shirt and takes refuge on his shoulders.

"I knew you would see things my way eventually." She says.

"Just t-tell me what it'll take to g-get you to leave me alone."

"Well," she takes on a friendlier tone before buttering him up, "I couldn't help but notice that you were a human, and that you had such large hands." She slides down Irvin's arm into the palm of his left hand. "You can imagine how hard it is for me to lift things with my own, given how small they are. That's a bit of a problem though, as there's this little door I need to open up. If only a dashing young man with strong working hands could open it up for me. Why, I might call such a hypothetical person a lifesaver."

Irvin sighs, tucking the mouse into the front pocket of his overalls. "I already said I'd do it, you don't have to d-dance around the subject."

"I was only trying to express how grateful I would be for your assistance." She explains, adjusting itself inside the pocket to stick its head out. "So, you have a name sweetheart, or should I just refer to you as the stuttering boy in overalls?"

"I-It's Irvin."

"My my, and such a… a strong name for a strong man."

"Seriously, stop it."

"Ah, I should introduce myself too, shouldn't I?"

Irvin didn't really care, so he didn't reply. That got him a nibble on the shoulder. "Gh- What's y-y-your name?"

"Well if you must know, you may call me Princess."

He sighs. "C-Could you just tell me where the door is already?"

…

Irvin stared at the nonsensical door, trying to understand why it was there. It was a red door with a weird gold colored handle. The handle looked like a circle split in half, positioned in a reverse-S shape. It looked like you needed to rotate both parts to open it, so he understood why Princess would need help getting through this.

At least he would if the door appeared to lead anywhere. Instead it was installed in a seemingly random patch of grass, connecting to nothing.

"...W-Why don't you just g-go around the d-door?" Irvin asks, confusedly. He walks around it to demonstrate just how easy it was. Princess lets out a small chuckle.

"Tsk tsk, I'd try opening it up before you write it off as unnecessary. I think you'll be quite surprised." She says. Irvin shrugs, but follows the requests. He grips the handle, and rotates it until he hears a clicking noise. With little effort, he's finally able to push the door open.

"H-H-Huh? Huh!?"

Behind the door was a metal platform, surrounded by entirely different scenery. It was almost like the doorway was a screen livestreaming footage from somewhere completely different.

"W-What? B-But the-" Irvin leaned around to check, but the back of the door hadn't moved with the front. "How… Wait."

He steps through to investigate. There was a bridge immediately in front of him, connecting the platform he was on to a massive metal structure. When he saw the wheels at the bottom, it finally clicked for him what he was looking at. They were train cars.

This was the train.

"Then… th-that whole farm was just one c-car?"

"Amazing, isn't it?" Princess remarks. "And there are oh so many more of them to explore."

Irvin goes to the side of the platform to try and count how many, but there were so many cars he couldn't even begin counting them all. Same problem looking back. Outside of that however, his attention was drawn to the surrounding area. Far from the forest he'd been in before the train and the lively farmland from moments ago, all he could see was a desert far as the eye could see. It was a dismal sight, not helped by the dark and cloudy red sky above.

"Where… are we?"

"Oh? Do you finally care?" Princess asks, snark leaking into her voice.

The reminder of his prior plan brought him back to reality. Horrible horrible reality. "..."

She must have noticed his hesitation, because she shifts to a less mocking tone. "Could you get the next one as well? You know, since you're already out here."

"...Y-Yeah, sure." Irvin says. He walks across the bridge connecting the two cars with one hand firmly on the guardrails the whole time. He was looking at a multi-story drop if he fell off, not even considering what would happen to him if he fell into the wheels. The very idea had Irvin's stomach dropping, so he moved quickly. The same speed was maintained when it came to opening the next door.

When he steps through, he notices that the door was actually installed into a wall this time. That lessened the unnatural portal-like effect a little bit. The car itself was vastly different, as it had the appearance of a mattress store. Compared to the much larger plot of land with a number of structures from the previous car, this was a single indoor building with a much clearer purpose. Beds, bare mattresses, pillows and blankets, and more were laid out all along the store.

There were a few other people looking around, except those 'people' were actually anthropomorphised cutlery and dishes. And yet again, a perfectly weird element had been undermined by a much greater reveal.

"Alright, we're in the next c-car. Is that all you wanted?"

Princess crawls out of his pocket, and leaps from his shoulder to his head. "I'll admit, this certainly beats that drab little farm. However, it's not exactly what I had in mind either. I was hoping for something a little more suited to my exotic and refined tastes. This store is a tad bit too… common."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Common is perfectly fine for commoners like you, but I like to think of myself as someone deserving of nicer things. And while those mattress may seem comfortable, the dull decor of this car is unforgivable. We can certainly do better than this, don't you think?"

"...Like what?" He asks.

She leans down to give Irvin a toothy grin, before launching into a whole new pitch. "Well, the way I see it our interests are aligned. As a passenger, I imagine that you have a number you need to bring down to zero, right?"

Irvin raises his hand to look at it. It hadn't changed at all, still stuck at 764. "N-No… not really."

"Oh? But don't you have any family to-"

"No." Irvin quickly says. "No… not anymore…"

"No one at all?" Princess asks.

"...Nobody who would c-care anymore."

"...I see. What about friends?"

He scoffs. "Better off without me."

"...Pets?"

"Never had any."

"What about just… for your own sake?"

Irvin just laughs at that one.

Realizing that track wasn't working, she shifts her argument "Fine! I get it, you're a sad nobody who nobody will ever miss. But unlike you, I have hopes, and dreams, and desires that are completely unachievable for me because I am physically incapable of opening these stupid doors!"

She jumps off of Irvin's head to the handle of the door they'd just come through. She tries to stomp on it to make it turn, but it doesn't move an inch. After a few attempts, she lets out a dejected sigh and gives up. Irvin couldn't help but sympathize after watching such a sad display.

"...W-What are you t-t-trying to find?" He asks. Princess climbs up the doorframe and leaps back onto him before responding.

"Nothing specific. I just want to find a car where I can finally feel at home. Some place where I can rest comfortably, indulge in all sorts of pleasures, and enjoy all of the finer things in life." She explains wistfully.

"Does a c-c-car like that actually exist?" Irvin asks.

"I won't know until I look, right?" She responds, determinedly. "If I just keep looking for my perfect car, eventually I'll just have to find it, right?"

Irvin glanced over at some of the beds. His original plan of 'sleep until I'm dead' was tempting. But Princess had made a valid point. If he didn't desire anything, then the least he could do is help her live up to her own dreams.

"I guess… y-yeah, okay. I d-don't really have anything b-better to do." Irvin says, nodding.

Princess lets out a shrill noise of approval, and gives him a tiny peck on the cheek. "Thank you thank you thank you! If you can find me some luxury car, we'll be more than even for me saving your life earlier."

"Are we s-still pretending that happened?" He asks.

"Yes, so play along." She whispers in his ear, even though he was the one she was trying to fool. It was stupid, but Irvin couldn't help but chuckle. As he's about to seek out the car's exit, he hears something coming from his hand. The numbers on it were moving like a slot machine, before settling on a new value.

743

"I-It changed!" Irvin says, showing Princess.

"Is that good?" She asks.

"I… don't know." He admits, not entirely sure how to feel about it. "But why did it d-drop by t-twenty-one all of a sudden?"

"I'm not sure... Numbers are a passenger problem, and nobody's ever explained how they work to me."

"..." Irvin just stares at his hand, trying to unravel what it could mean. What caused the drop? Why did it go down by that amount?

...And if he didn't want to go home, should he try to prevent it from going down further?